Andrew Selee

Andrew Selee was named Executive Vice President of the Wilson Center in January 2014. Prior to this position, Selee was the Wilson Center’s Vice President for Programs. He was the founding Director the Center’s Mexico Institute from 2003-12. He is an adjunct professor of Government at Johns Hopkins University and of International Affairs at George Washington University and has been a visiting professor at El Colegio de Mexico.

His most recent publications are What Should Think Tanks Do? A Strategic Guide for Policy Impact (Stanford University Press, 2013), Mexico and the United States: The Politics of Partnership (Lynne Rienner, 2013), and Mexico's Democratic Challenges (Stanford University Press/Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2010). He has written extensively on U.S.-Mexico relations, Mexican politics, U.S. immigration policy, organized crime, and democracy in Latin America.

His public opinion articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Americas Quarterly, and other media, and he writes a biweekly column in the Mexican newspaper El Universal. He is interviewed frequently in the press, including PBS, NBC, CBS, Fox News, NPR, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post,Wall Street Journal, and The Economist.

Selee is co-director of the Regional Migration Study Group, convened by the Migration Policy Institute and the Wilson Center, and was a member of Council on Foreign Relations' Task Force on Immigration. He is a long-time volunteer of the YMCA and was a member of the YMCA of the USA’s National Board and International Committee.

Prior to joining the Wilson Center as a program associate in the Latin American Program in 2000, he was a professional staffer in the U.S. House of Representatives and worked for five years with the YMCA of Baja California in Tijuana, Mexico, helping to start a community center and a home for migrant youth.

Education

Ph.D. in Policy Studies from the University of Maryland; M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of California, San Diego; B.A. in Latin American Studies (Phi Beta Kappa) from Washington University in St. Louis.

Major Publications

What Should Think Tanks Do? A Strategic Guide for Policy Impact (Stanford University Press, 2013);

Mexico and the United States: The Politics of Partnership (Lynne Rienner, 2013, co-edited with Peter H. Smith);

Decentralization, Democratization, and Informal Power in Mexico (Penn State University Press, 2011)

This article is in Spanish.
The meeting between President-elect of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto and President Barack Obama, the U.S. could lead to a new tone of bilateral dialogue "that focuses on issues beyond security," said Andrew Selee, Mexico Program director and vice president of the Woodrow Wilson Center. more

This article is in Spanish.
Andrew Selee says that this is a first contact and will serve to set the tone in US-Mexico relations.
This article also ran on El-Mexicano.com, ElPorvenir.com, ElSiglodeTorreon.com, and other news outlets.
more

Op-ed by Andrew Selee and Christopher Wilson. Andrew Selee is the vice president for programs at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a senior adviser for the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center. Christopher Wilson is an associate for the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center. more

The depth of economic ties with Mexico, together with declines in illegal immigration and organized crime violence in Mexico, open up an opportunity for U.S. policymakers to deepen the economic relationship with Mexico and to engage Mexico more on major global issues. more

This article references a 2011 report from the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute saying Mexico is the United States’ second-largest export market, and one in 24 Americans depend on trade with Mexico for their jobs. It also features commentary by Andrew Selee more

This article is in Spanish.
Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center, said that while the renewal of the Supreme Court could mean changes in matter, they would be gradual and more towards the long term, as there is enough political base in the United States support more regulation of guns.
more

Mexico and the United States are no longer “distant neighbors” but have become “intimate strangers,” tied together by intense ties across the border but with limited understanding of each other, writes Andrew Selee in an op-ed in the Mexican newspaper El Universal.

Andrew Selee analyzes the key aspects of the Mexico-U.S. relationship in this op-ed. The article argues that the meeting between the US and Mexican presidents later this week is likely to focus on economic issues, including border management and educational opportunities; however, security and migration will also be on the plate for their discussions.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the partnership between Mexico and the United States? What might be done to improve it? Exploring both policy and process, and ranging from issues of trade and development to concerns about migration, the environment, and crime, the authors of Mexico and the United States provide a comprehensive analysis of one of the world’s most complex bilateral relationships.

Informal collaborative methods are typical of the border region, in which citizens and local authorities must resolve daily problems by going beyond the official frameworks provided by their national governments.

In his latest op-ed contribution for Mexico's El Universal, Andrew Selee of the Wilson Center's Mexico Institute discusses immigrant integration in America and the importance of economic integration for the bilateral relationship.

Andrew Selee of the Wilson Center noted that we might see a return of circular migration, which would benefit Mexican communities. "Now people who go to the US without documents know that returning to Mexico ends their options so they stay in the US. With visa options, they may choose to come and go again."

The Woodrow Wilson Center and the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands cordially invite you to the launching of a report that contains a set of fresh policy recommendations for the winners of the U.S. and Mexican 2012 presidential elections.

The Wilson Center, Hispanics in Philanthropy, the Washington Office on Latin America, and the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility hosted a panel discussion on, The America’s Future in the Balance: Persistent Underfunding of Latino Communities across the Americas.

CIDE University in Mexico City, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Latin American Program, the Inter-American Dialogue,
the Latin American Initiative at the Brookings Institution, and the CSIS America’s Program were pleased to host the launch of the report on public opinion in the Americas.

Once every twelve years, presidential elections in Mexico and the United States fall in the same year. Mexico Institute Director Andrew Selee and Senior Associate Eric L. Olson examined the current political landscape in Mexico and the implications for the 2012 presidential elections in both countries.

A diverse team of experts discussed Mexico’s political landscape as the country prepares for presidential elections in 2012. They examined prospects for the major candidates and parties, how the economy, security and foreign relations are likely to be debated, and the health of Mexico’s electoral system.

Pages

This empirically grounded collection examines the growth of participatory institutions in Latin American democracy and how such institutions affect representative government. Selee and Peruzzotti analyze specific cases in Mexico, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina.

This book studies the relation of decentralization to democratization at both intermediate and local levels and analyzes how decentralization is transforming the relationship between the state and civil society. The publication presents case studies from six countries in three continents.

This publication is the result of a meeting which took place in Mexico City in June 2004. Participants from Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and the United States sought to understand the theoretical possibilities and the practical achievements of citizen participation and public deliberation in local governments in Mexico.

This publication examines specific challenges for security cooperation between the United States and Mexico including efforts to address the consumption of narcotics, money laundering, arms trafficking, intelligence sharing, policy strengthening, judicial reform, civil-military relations, and the protection of journalists.

This volume explores one of the crucial intersections of political and economic change: how the reform of the central state in the form of policies of decentralization has affected democratic governance in different countries and at different levels of society.The book is a product of a two-year project on decentralization which included both national-level and comparative research.

This volume offers several of the presentations from a May 2000 this conference which address political and social transition in Mexico, new directions in economic policy, and the changing nature of U.S.-Mexico relations.

Decentralization, Democratic Governance, and Civil Society in Comparative Perspective studies the relation of decentralization to democratization at both intermediate and local levels and analyzes how decentralization is transforming the relationship between the state and civil society. This book presents case studies from six countries in three continents in which decentralization of some parts of government has been attempted: Mexico, Chile, South Africa, Kenya, the Philippines, and Indonesia.More about this title can be found on the Wilson Center Press website.

In this paper we look at what the two governments have done over the past two years to move forward on their commitments. We find that there have been steady advances in each of the areas they committed to address, but that the results so far are far less than what is needed to address the threat posed by organized crime groups.

An overview of Mexico's Politics, Economy, and Society and an assessment of key issues in U.S.-Mexico Relations with particular focus on economic integration, security cooperation, migration, and the U.S.-Mexico border.

Andrew Selee is director of the Mexico Institute, having previously served as senior program associate for the Latin American Program. Prior to that, he served as professional staff for the United States House of Representatives. Eric Olson is senior advisor to the Security Initiative of the Mexico Institute. Prior to joining the Wilson Center, he worked with the Organization of American States and also with Amnesty International U.S.A.

Andrew Selee is director of the Mexico Institute, having previously served as senior program associate for the Latin American Program. Prior to that, he served as professional staff for the United States House of Representatives.
Eric Olson is senior advisor to the Security Initiative of the Mexico Institute. Prior to joining the Wilson Center, he worked with the Organization of American States and also with Amnesty International U.S.A.

Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Felipe Aguero, Professor in the Department of International Studies at the University of Miami and a current Fellow of the Wilson Center

Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Felipe Aguero, Professor in the Department of International Studies at the University of Miami and a current Fellow of the Wilson Center